


Guardian

by MoonRiver



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Angst, Emotional, Emotional Baggage, Family, Family Feels, Found Family, Gen, Good Parent Ray Molina, Grief/Mourning, Heart-to-Heart, Hugs all around, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking, Lots of tears, Luke visits his grave, Past Alex Mercer/Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Ray Molina Adopts The Phantoms, Sad Luke, Sad with a Happy Ending, also lots of hugs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:48:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28777815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonRiver/pseuds/MoonRiver
Summary: Despite how close the teenager was to Julie, Luke was the phantom Ray arguably knew the least about. The two have a long overdue heart-to-heart and get to know each other better.
Comments: 32
Kudos: 139
Collections: Random_booklovers favourite Sunset Curve fics





	Guardian

The house was always so quiet right after the kids got off to school. Even with the known presence of the now corporal three teenage ghosts in the house (and hadn’t _that_ been an adjustment for them all?) the mornings were awfully somber. Apparently, even though the three boys no longer relied on sleep, 9AM was still too early to do anything. Not that Ray minded, it was nice to come back into the living room from dropping the kids off and finally having a moment of peace. A moment where he could switch off Dad Mode for just a minute and zone out.

He was surprised when he came back into the house, dropped his keys on the counter, and found one of the teenage ghosts lounging on the sofa, leaning over his guitar as he scribbled lyrics on a notepad.

Luke.

Arguably, he was the ghost Ray knew the least about. He and Reggie had apparently been good friends since long before that fateful day when he could be seen for the first time, and he hung around the house even more now that he could be seen. Alex often tagged along with Reggie, mostly just amused at how excited his friend was to have a parent around again. But Luke often didn’t hang around unless Julie was there. Even then he tended to avoid eye contact and didn’t usually volunteer to speak up, which from what he understood was entirely uncharacteristic of him. He wasn’t surprised when Luke froze when he saw that he had returned home; Ray held out a hand to stop him before he could disappear away.

“It’s okay!” He assured the teenager, who didn’t look at all convinced. “I meant it- mi casa es su casa.”

Luke just nodded but looked very much like he’d rather be anywhere than stuck hanging out with someone’s dad.

“So…” Ray announced awkwardly. Selfishly, he wanted to take advantage of this moment to see if he could learn well, anything, about Luke. Or just establish that it was okay if they talked…or didn’t. At the least he wanted to establish it didn’t need to be this awkward every time they crossed paths. “What are you working on?”

He wasn’t surprised when the guitarist simply shrugged. It was a response he was very used to as a father. Luke studied him for a moment, trying to gage how much he could be trusted.

“It’s just something for me,” Luke finally confessed, handing him the notepad. “I don’t think it’s a very Julie and the Phantoms vibe, but sometimes you just need to get the words out of your head, you know?”

Ray was possibly the least musically inclined person in his family, so he really didn’t know. But as his eyes scanned the lyrics, some written in a hurry like Luke couldn’t get them on paper fast enough and some spaced out, like he was hesitant to even admit those thoughts crossed his mind, he could understand.

He found himself smiling at the title “The Time Traveler”.

“I just don’t feel like it’s a good idea for a time traveling ghost band to release a song about time traveling,” Luke said. “Might raise a few eyebrows.”

Ray chuckled, the kid had a point, but he was too engrossed with just how incredible the story on the page was to respond.

“This is really good,” he finally announced, “this is like, Leonard Cohen good.”

“That’s what I was going for!” Luke exclaimed, grinning. Ray felt like he scored a couple of dad points at earning a smile from him. “You like Cohen?”

“Yeah! Of course I like Cohen. And Dylan.”

“Dude! We saw him when he was in LA in ’92, it was incredible.”

Ray’s eyes went wide, remembering very clearly being there for one of those shows.

“I was there!” Ray said. “May 16, 1992!”

It was too surreal, but for the half hour as they compared notes on various shows they’d seen and favorite albums, Ray felt like a teenager again. Luke had an impressive range in his taste of music, artists Ray hadn’t even thought about in years after having children born in the mid-2000s. The amount of music the phantoms had just barely missed out on, he realized as they talked, was astounding…and the number of artists lost since 1995 was just depressing.

“I refuse to believe Prince is dead,” Luke fumed, leaning back against the sofa as he took all of this new information in.

“Yeah, that was a hard one,” Ray sighed. “Totally shocked everyone. Rose was upset for weeks. She was upset over Bowie too. When she was…when she was diagnosed, she listened to the album he released before he died on repeat for weeks.”

He bit his lip, stopping himself short before going into any more detail. He had grown to be very careful at how he brought up his late wife around the kids. It had been a little over a year, but it still felt like they were walking on eggshells around their grief. Ray wasn’t sure how much Julie had shared with Luke, and he didn’t want to overstep. He was also cautious of the fact that Luke was well, dead, and he wasn’t sure how comfortable the phantom was with talking about death yet.

“I’m sorry, about Julie’s mom,” Luke announced quietly.

His face contorted into pain, and he looked so hesitant, like there was something he really wanted to talk about but didn’t know how. It was another look he was very used to as a father. He would never claim to be an expert on parenting, most days he was flat out terrified and wrecked with anxiety, wondering how in the world he was put in charge of two living beings on his own, let alone two human beings and three ghosts who had time travelled from the 90s. But he was all these boys had as far as a parental figure went.

“Thanks,” Ray offered sincerely. He still wasn’t sure how to respond when people said that, but at least he had gotten to the point where he could respond without fighting back tears. He studied the young guitarist, considering how his parents went through this too. Someone had buried him, he had a grave somewhere. That had to be a lot to take on, at any age let alone seventeen. “I’m sorry for you guys too. In case no one has said. You didn’t deserve to lose your lives that young. I know a lot has been put on you, and coming back like this…I don’t understand it any better than anyone, but if you ever need to just, you know…talk. I’m here.”

For a long moment Luke hesitated again, though Ray could plainly see he was struggling to fight back emotion. He knew what it was like to be a seventeen year old kid and knew that the last thing you wanted to do at that age was ftalk about feelings with any adult. But he could also tell it was absolutely what the teenager needed.

“I…” Luke stated, trailing off before swallowing away his nerves. “I just, I don’t understand why we came back. Besides the unfinished business part…why did _we_ come back? Let’s be honest, the ghosts this family wanted weren’t three teenagers from ’95.”

Ray’s heart melted. He knew about survivor’s guilt- he had felt himself when Rose was the one with cancer and not him. He hadn’t thought about _ghost guilt_.

He turned to the kid, who despite being also born in the late seventies, looked just so _young_ at that moment. He should be in his forties now too, with his own family, with all the music success, world tours, hell this kid deserved _Grammys_. He didn’t deserve to be sitting in some stranger’s living room, a couple of decades out of his time, feeling guilty for being a ghost, of all things. Ray turned toward him, placing his hands on his shoulder.

“Luke, you three are exactly what this family needs,” Ray told him. Luke looked away, his eyes full of pain as he slammed them shut, forcing the emotion back. “My wife is gone, and it hurts, it really hurts, but even if she…even if she were a ghost, it wouldn’t change that. I don’t exactly know how this afterlife thing works, or how or why you get sent here…but I can tell you I’m not the only Molina who thinks that this whole thing has Rose written all over it.”

Luke pried an eye open and offered him the smallest of smirks. Progress.

“You think so?” He asked.

Ray nodded.

“It’s kind of her style,” he admitted.

Rose had always been quite spiritual, but she at times had almost a mild obsession with the afterlife. It was the root of a lot of her writing, and Ray had to admit he was a bit drawn to a girl who could appreciate the darker side of life. At the same time, as much as they talked about what came next she was so full of life, so appreciative of what she had and her family. She was so aware of how lucky she was to be put on this Earth and wanted to live to the fullest And even though she was taken too young, Ray truly believe that she had.

He smiled, and Luke smiled back, warming his heart with that feeling of successfully helping one of his kids.

“We were just some dumb teenagers,” Luke confessed. “We were strays, but we were supposed to be legends! Reggie and Alex, they should have grown up and seen the world and been _known_ and have families. But I convinced them to do the stupidest things. I mean we were stupid enough to eat hot dogs with condiments someone was serving out of their _car_.”

Eyes closed again, he buried himself back against the sofa cushions. Ray wanted nothing more than to be able to hold him, like he would either of his children, but he was treading carefully. It was already the most Luke had opened up to him in weeks.

“Teenagers do stupid things,” Ray shrugged. He paused, considering that maybe this was the right time to spill his own secret. Maybe he wasn’t ever ready for his kids to know, but who better to tell than a ghost that was dealing with more guilt than he could imagine. “I want to tell you something that I haven’t told anyone, in a long time, and my kids don’t know…I’m not sure I want Julie to know yet. But I want to trust you with this.”

Luke’s eyes were open again and staring at him, curious. He nodded numbly.

Drawing in a deep breath, Ray began.

“When I was eighteen years old, me and my best friend at the time went to this party some college kids he knew were throwing. We told our parents were going to a show. We figured, we were going off to school soon. We wanted to see what it was like. We drove there, like idiots. We drank, underage, like idiots. I just had one beer and hated it, but I kept it around all night and acted like I was drunk.”

Luke snorted.

“Been there,” he muttered. Ray’s eyes narrowed, and the teenager quickly swallowed and corrected: “I mean…that was really stupid, and I’d never do that, and I’d absolutely never would let Julie do that.”

“I would hope not…” he wasn’t quite sure how to come back from that, so he continued: “The plan was to get a ride home from this kid’s sister, and we’d come back from the car the next day. But my friend got it in his head that his dad would kill him if he didn’t bring the car back home. We were there for hours, so he was convinced he was okay to drive. We were so in over our heads and so, so stupid. We didn’t make it two miles, we wrecked, flipped the car. I could never trust myself with alcohol after that.”

The phantom sat quietly, arms crossed, as he took in the story. Truthfully, Ray didn’t let himself consider what all trouble the guys may have gotten themselves into back in the day. He wasn’t born yesterday, they were teenagers playing the LA club scene, living out of a garage. He knew they had likely done things he’d be horrified for Julie to know about.

“Why are you telling me this?” Luke finally asked cautiously.

He tried to sound confused, but Ray had a feeling he understood the story more than he’d like to admit.

“Teenagers do stupid things,” Ray announced. “Really, really stupid things. I still don’t understand how we survived that crash, but it’s something that I wouldn’t have ever had the nerve to do at any other point in my life. It’s something I learned from, something that changed my life because I realized how lucky I was to walk out of that alive. You guys didn’t get that chance to grow up and learn from your mistakes. It’s nothing you would have ever asked for. You didn’t _do_ anything to deserve it. I know your friends don’t blame you. You guys came back together…and I have a feeling that maybe part of your unfinished business is learning to forgive yourselves. You need to forgive _you_.”

Luke drew in a shaky breath, and Ray fully prepared himself for the boy just suddenly disappearing away.

He wasn’t prepared for him to throw his arms around him, burying his head in his shoulder as the floodgates opened up. Ray didn’t say anything. His eyes fell closed as his chest tightened, feeling so much pain for the young child as he held him, letting him break down in his arms.

“How am I supposed to do that?” Luke choked out.

He pulled away, desperately running his hands over his face. Ray was still amazed that ghosts could cry, and somehow this hurt more. It was so long before they could even feel touch. They couldn’t eat, or sleep, rest their bodies at all…but they could cry. He placed a hand on Luke’s cheek, wiping away his tears.

“Acceptance, mijo,” he whispered. “You have to learn to accept that your death wasn’t your fault. You have to accept that you didn’t deserve this. It happened to you, and it wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. We have no idea why you had to die. I know it’s an impossible thing to accept, I’m having trouble accepting that Rose…even still…but eventually, we do. Grieving is something we usually do when we lose someone. We don’t ever have to grieve for our own lives but…I think maybe that’s what you boys need to do.”

Luke fell against him again, and Ray held him close.

“You’ll be okay, Luke,” he promised. “You’ll be okay.”

His eyes fell closed as he realized with his own guilt, that wasn’t really true, was it? They were _dead_. It very much wasn’t okay. Somewhere in this very city this boy’s parents lived, grieving the loss of their son every single day. The only way it could get better was if they passed on to heaven, which at this point he was certain the boys were are doubtful if that was even a real thing they could do, and even if they did while he knew that was all Julie wanted for him, she would be at a loss without them.

But he knew right now, all Luke needed was reassurance that he wasn’t alone, that this wasn’t all on him.

When Luke finally lifted himself up, Ray rubbed his arm, staying silent as he let him process.

“Sorry to break down on you like that,” Luke muttered.

“ _Mijo_ …don’t be sorry. Don’t ever be sorry.”

“You’re a great dad,” Luke said with a small smile. He looked a bit more himself, a bit more hopeful. “Julie’s really lucky to have you.”

Ray had to admit, it was nice having that kind of reassurance from a teenager. Though he had the full support of his and Rose’s extended families, aside from Victoria (who would take over the entire house for him if he let her), he did feel very much alone after Rose’s death. He had no clue how he was going to be a single father to a young song and _teenage daughter_. He had no way to gage how he was doing. He’d only ever admit to himself that he had felt incredibly stupid when he found out the truth about Julie’s hologram band- and slightly terrified that so much chaos had been happening under his own roof without his knowledge.

It made him second guess everything about being a parent.

But he had gotten this pretty under control, right? Helping a teenage ghost through a breakdown? If he did say so himself, that had to earn him a few parenting kudos.

“Well, there’s no handbook for finding out your daughter is friends with three teenaged ghosts, but I’m trying to figure this out.”

He wanted to say something cheesy, like _you can call me dad if you want_ , but he wasn’t sure if they were there yet. He knew Luke went to his parents’ house frequently, and while his parents were a subject the phantom hadn’t told him about, he could tell it wasn’t an easy history. He knew there was a very fine line, and he didn’t intend to be a replacement parent at all. _Guardian._ That’s what he was.

What Ray wished more than anything he could tell the boys’ parents that their kids were looked after. Maybe his words were right, that once you’re dead nothing changes that, but if Rose was out there, under someone’s watch, he would be eternally grateful. It broke his heart, imagining Luke joining his parents for dinner, unnoticed. Sitting with them on holidays…he didn’t know how Luke was managing the pain.

“Yeah, there’s no handbook for being a teenage ghost either,” Luke smirked. “But I think you’re right. I think I need to mourn my own life. And there’s something I haven’t done yet…I haven’t visited my grave.”

Ray swallowed nervously and it looked like Luke did the same, seeming uncertain of himself even as he said it.

“I know it’s morbid,” Luke offered quickly.

It was morbid. Of course it was. But like most hard, dark, things…Ray immediately realized it would be an important step for Luke in accepting his death.

“No,” Ray cut in. I’d be honored.”

At first, he thought that Luke would teleport to the cemetery, but Luke surprised him with asking if he could ride with him in the car. It had been two and a half decades since he had been in a car, since he rode around Los Angeles. His eyes were lit up with wonder as Ray named off all the new buildings and explained how neighborhoods had changed. He was in disbelief of the sheer number of restaurants and places to eat now. The phantom became so distracted by the newness of it all that he almost seemed to forget where they were going, until they arrived at the graveyard and he stiffened.

“We don’t have to go until you’re ready,” Ray offered.

Luke stared ahead at the rows of graves, where somewhere, his body was buried. Ray held his breath…this _really_ wasn’t in the parenting handbook.

“I’m ready.”

They remained silent as they walked through the rows of graves to where Luke’s body lay. The three boys were buried together, which eased Ray’s heart a bit. They were always meant to stay together.

When they reached the headstones, they both stopped immediately. Ray really wasn’t sure what to expect, but Luke had a beautiful headstone, a proper headstone, a picture of a guitar sketched into it. Blue flowers were planted in front of the grave.

_Luke Patterson_

_August 15, 1978-July 22, 1995_

_Loving Son_

He dared to steal a glance over to the phantom, who was once again rubbing at his eyes, trying to hold it together.

“The guitar,” he finally said, his voice breaking, “it’s perfect. I really didn’t think…the band, it came between us, a lot.”

Ray placed a hand on his shoulder. Luke didn’t even have to explain. He was already having to worry about things with Julie, like making sure school came first, not working so hard, becoming so attached, playing at major venues already. Sunset Curve had already been big enough to book a small LA tour. None of the boys still lived with their families. He wasn’t surprised at all to hear that had been a sore spot with his parents, though he wondered just how much there was too it.

“I don’t know what to say,” Luke finally admitted. “The guys, they came out here right away. I couldn’t. Maybe I was in too much denial. Maybe it was too morbid. What am I even supposed to say?”

“You don’t have to say anything,” Ray assured him. “Sometimes when I visit Rose, I tell her everything that’s been going on. Othertimes I just sit with her.”

Luke nodded, though he still seemed completely lost. After a long, pensive, moment he finally announced to the grave:

“I did it, playing at the Orpheum. It was everything I ever hoped it would be. Music, it was all I ever wanted…it’s all I’ll ever have. The band…I’m sorry that we didn’t get it all, the fame, the albums and awards, the money. But we’ll always have the band, and I guess even mom and dad knew that’s all that mattered.”

Drawing in a deep, ragged breath, Luke shifted over to the headstone beside his.

_Reginald Peters._

_October 31, 1978-July 22, 1995_

“Reggie was born on Halloween?” Ray asked, amused.

Luke snorted.

“Are you really surprised?”

Somehow, he wasn’t.

Reggie’s headstone wasn’t nearly as flashy as Luke’s, it was just a simple granite stone. Luke drew in another shaky breath before he began:

“Reggie… _I’m sorry_.”

He broke down again, and Ray couldn’t help but to place an arm around him, letting him cry into his shoulder once again.

 _Maybe this was a bad idea,_ he admitted to himself, _it’s too much. How is he supposed to handle this?_

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about,” Ray reminded him.

Luke nodded, trembling as he lifted his head and tried again:

“I don’t know what Sunset Curve would have been without you. You’re so full of life…even as ghost. I think you like being a ghost a bit _too_ much sometimes. You deserved so much better, though. You deserved a family that…that treated you better. I hope that we were enough. You’ll always be my brother.”

Ray didn’t say anything. Reggie had offered him next to no information about what his family life was like. While he got brother vibes from him, like he had to have had at least one sibling, the bassist had never said. Although Ray knew there had to be a reason that he too lived in the garage at seventeen and not at home, he hated to imagine that the happy-go-lucky phantom’s family had been anything less than ideal.

Reaching down, Luke carefully tugged out one of the flowers that was planted at his grave and placed it in front of Reggie’s.

He slid next over to Alex’s, to the left of Luke’s headstone.

Well, it wasn’t as much of a headstone as it was a simple silver plaque in the ground.

_Alex Mercer._

No dates. No quotes. Nothing that even suggested he had been best friends with the two boys buried bedside him.

“Those assholes,” Luke mumbled. “They hated him, after he came out. They were so religious they couldn’t even make an exception for their own son. I guess they couldn’t even care after they died.”

Ray felt sick to his stomach; his hands balled to fists at his side. How could anyone take something so precious as their own child and treat them that way? How could they not even care for their son even in death? No wonder the poor teenager was always so anxious. He could only be grateful that Alex was here now, even if just in spirit, to see how accepting the world had become in 2020.

“Alex…” Luke paused for a long moment, a distant smile falling across his face, a reaction to a far away memory. “Our last year together, it was…special.”

His smile turned a bit sly, and Ray suddenly felt like he was intruding. And he felt like he was missing something.

“I’ll always be grateful for that,” Luke went on. “You taught me so much. I’m sorry you spent so much of your life so anxious. You were _incredible_. You _are_ incredible. I’m…glad things went out on good terms. Being able to call you my friend, in life and death…it means the world to me.”

He rocked on his feet, hands behind his back, looking just so _young_ again as he tried to decide if that was all he had to say. At last he let out a deep breath, which even though Ray knew that ghosts obviously didn’t need to breathe, psychologically it seemed to help them.

Rose would have been fascinated by that, he thought.

“Thanks Ray,” Luke finally stated. “This…this was good, I think.”

“Baby steps,” Ray replied.

Luke just nodded.

“If it’s okay…I’d kind of just like to sit. If you’d want to join me?”

Ray blinked. He wasn’t sure when the last time was a kid wanted to spend this much time with him. Willingly.

“Yeah, of course”

They took a seat on the grass, Ray thinking he should have thought to have brought a blanket. It was still only midday, and he was overwhelmed with the idea that one of the teenagers in his family could potentially spend the entire morning and afternoon with him. He didn’t know what to say so he began to pick at the grass, tying the long strands into knots like Julie did when she was a little girl. Luke stared at Alex’s grave, deep in thought, and Ray couldn’t help but to be curious.

It had been obvious with each Julie and the Phantom performance that there was chemistry between Luke and his daughter. He had hoped to chalk it up to chemistry between two musicians, but he couldn’t deny that Julie was at _that age_. He was just biding his time before they’d have to have _the talk_ , which was going to be made ten times more complicated if her crush was a _ghost_. But he couldn’t tell what the phantom’s intentions was. As much chemistry as the two of them had, he seemed to bond with his friends just as much. His speech about Alex just made him wonder…

“So…” Ray finally dared to speak up. “You and Alex had…something special?”

At first Luke froze, and Ray was afraid he had ruined everything. He fully expected Luke to disappear on the spot, but was taken aback when his lips instead turned up in a sad smile.

“Yeah, we were…kind of a thing,” Luke confessed. Ray couldn’t help but to grin. It all made sense now. He and Alex just seemed to have a different vibe than Reggie had with either of them, or even that Alex had with Reggie. It was hard to explain, it seemed a bit…delicate, between them. “Please don’t tell Julie, we’d never hear the end of it.”

Ray held his hands up in defense.

“Your secret is safe with me,” Ray promised. “Thank you, mijo, for telling me.”

“Yeah,” Luke shrugged, as though it were no big deal, but Ray couldn’t imagine. The 90s weren’t exactly the easiest time for gay men, and if Luke really did have any feelings for Julie, if he was bisexual, he could really imagine that wasn’t easy. Luke confessed: “No one really knew, just the guys. It was just an innocent little relationship. I was just…curious, you know? I mean, probably you don’t because you were married forever and had kids. But…I was.”

Ray had to admire Luke for handling this so casual, he seemed to be so comfortable with his past and sexuality. Admitedly, Rose was his first and last love. Until meeting Rose, he had only had a couple of girlfriends, nothing serious.

“We decided we were better as friends,” the phantom admitted. Ray had a feeling there was a _lot_ more to that story but again, baby steps. “I guess part of me still feels…things…for him. But just because we’ll always have that connection. The guys, we’re brothers.”

“You’re special kids,” Ray replied.

“So is Julie.”

Luke grimaced as soon as he said it, looking like he fully expected some kind of dad lecture, but Ray spared him. Today wasn’t about that.

He decided maybe they both needed to be spared and changed the topic:

“You know, I never heard how you guys met.”

This time Luke grinned, and Ray knew he picked the perfect subject to talk about.

“So I’m sure you’ll have no trouble believing this, but Reggie was that kid in kindergarten who tried to eat glue…”

They stayed out at the cemetery for another hour as Luke told him all about growing up with the band, him and Reggie having met in kindergarten, Alex in middle school and Bobby last, in high school. He asked Ray to tell him how he met Rose, asked about Julie as a kid. Eventually they left the cemetery and went walking alongside the beach- something Ray hadn’t done since Rose had passed away. She had loved going out to the beach, loved their picnic dates at sunset.

Ray would have given anything in the world to have been able to buy the teenager lunch, get ice cream, all of those father-son type things you do when you’re lucky enough to have kids that don’t mind spending the day with you. But he settled for the conversation. He couldn’t remember talking so much in a long, long time, and it felt good. Luke seemed to feel more relaxed around him, and he couldn’t have felt more successful.

“I really appreciated all this,” Luke offered as they climbed out of the car once they got back home. Well, Ray climbed. Luke teleported out, just to show off. He could only laugh, not complaining since the ghost could have easily bypassed LA traffic and beat him home, but he seemed to enjoy taking part in the mundane side of life, like traffic jams, again. “It was nice. I get why Reggie likes spending so much time with you. I’m sorry if I’ve been distant. I just haven’t known how to deal.”

“Again, no handbook for teenage ghosts, right?” Ray offered. “I appreciate you trusting me. I mean it, mijo, you boys are our family. However long you need to stay…we’re here for you.”

He was surprised when Luke offered him a final embrace, and he couldn’t have been more grateful that the phantoms were corporal now and could share that feeling of being there with someone. He couldn’t imagine how much harder that made it to trust someone- it was bad enough to not even be seen, let alone to be seen but not touched.

“I kind of want to visit my folks, if that’s alright?” Luke asked.

Ray blinked.

“You don’t need my permission,” he replied. “I mean…no hurt feelings.”

Luke nodded, appreciative, before disappearing away.

Ray let out a long sigh of relief when the phantom was gone, just like that. He was _exhausted_.

“I truly have four teenagers now,” he said to himself, in disbelief. He looked up to the sky and smiled at the pink-purple sunset. “What am I supposed to do with four teenagers, Rose?”

The wind picked up around him gently, as though to hug him and murmur _it’s going to be okay_.

Out of nowhere, Reggie popped up beside him, scaring the daylights out of him. Usually they were at least kind of enough to give him a heads up now that he could see them. Reggie looked just a bit offended, and Ray realized the other two must have found out he and Luke were gone all day.

“For starters, we can have a Reggie-Ray day out,” Reggie stated, crossing his arms. “Maybe I need some quality father-ghost time too!”

Before Ray could reply, Alex appeared by his friend.

“Dude, every day is Reggie-Ray day for you, you’ve been stalking the poor guy since we got here.”

He threw Ray an apologetic look, and Ray couldn’t help but to laugh. It felt nice, being around them now that he knew so much more about them- of course, Luke had sworn him to secrecy, and he was sure Alex would die…again…knowing Ray knew about his and Luke’s _special relationship_. But it was nice.

“How about a movie night tonight?” Ray offered, placing a hand on each of their shoulders as he led them back into the house. Thankfully, they did him the curtesy of not teleporting in first.

“Yes!” Reggie exclaimed, pumping a fist into the air. “Star Wars!”

“No!” Alex shot, dodging as Reggie tried to shove him away. “No more Star Wars!”

“I was thinking we’d get into the Jurassic Parks,” Ray suggested.

The two froze.

“There was more than one Jurassic Park?” Alex asked, more serious than ever.

Ray laughed as they stepped into the home, where Julie would soon be doing homework at the kitchen island, Carlos would be trying to sneak in video game time, and dinner would be started. All the silence of the morning was long forgotten. He smiled to himself, knowing the truth:

The noise was nice.

The life that filled the house these days was nice.

…even if some of that life was now three ghosts who would soon be making sure he never had another quiet moment to himself again.

“You boys have a lot to catch up on.”

And he couldn’t have been happier or prouder to be the chosen guardian to help guide them through it.

**Author's Note:**

> I noticed Ray and Luke don't have many "interactions" in the show and decided to take a shot at writing them getting to know each other. I actually really enjoyed writing this, so I hope you enjoyed reading it! I'd love to hear what you thought, any feedback, and even any ideas for other stories. I just feel like Luke probably would feel a lot of ghost guilt, I can't even imagine. I liked exploring that. Thanks for reading!


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